I liked reading The State of Grace. Usually I find books under 300 pages sacrifice depth of characters. For this book, the lower page count wasn’t an issue at all. Rachael Lucas knew exactly what her story was and knew exactly where she was going with it. I found The State of Grace to be focussed and intentional in telling Grace’s story. It’s a book that embraces neurodiversity — something that I’ve not come across all that much in YA fiction.

Trouble Makes a Comeback was exactly the sequel that it needed to be. When I read the first book, Trouble is a Friend of Mine, I was disappointed about the open ending. Back then, I only knew of it as a standalone book. When Hot Key Books reached out, asking me if I’d be interested in reviewing this sequel, I was excited to learn that Trouble is a series. Right now, I can’t wait for the third book to come out.

Before A Quiet Kind of Thunder, I had never read a book involving a character with selective mutism, nor a character who is deaf. It didn’t occur to me previously that I hadn’t until I had the opportunity to review this book. I was a little unsure if I would like it because it’s primarily a romance novel. On the flip side, Sara Barnard wrote this and I really enjoyed her debut, Beautiful Broken Things, so I was still curious.

There are so many reasons to hate Those Girls. Yet when I step away from the content and simply think about the structure of Those Girls as a novel, it actually holds up pretty well. This is why I think Lauren Saft has what it takes to become a successful author but I don’t have it in me to like this book much.